BU launched an investigation of Marchant after one of his former graduate students filed a complaint with the university’s Equal Opportunity Office in October 2016. In that complaint, Jane Willenbring, now an associate professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, part of the University of California, San Diego, alleged that Marchant sexually harassed her in Antarctica in 1999, when she was 22 years old. A second complaint against Marchant was filed by another of his former graduate students in May. She also alleged that Marchant sexually harassed her when she was a young graduate student doing isolated field work with him in Antarctica. She has requested anonymity.

This week, in an email to ScienceInsider, Colin Riley, BU’s executive director of media relations, wrote that “Prof. Marchant is on administrative leave as [Earth and Environment] department chair” but continues to teach. Marchant was placed on leave after Science’s article appeared.

BU investigators told Willenbring last month that their probe of her allegations against Marchant would be completed soon.